MEGASTARS
The Veiled Queen of Radiology Who Scanned King Tut's Mummy
By Prof. Talaat I. Farag
Prof. Mervat Shafik, Head of the Radiology Department at Cairo University, is a brave women. She was the only woman scientist to join Prof. Zahi Hawass's medical team, to visit King Tut's (VK #62) tomb in Luxor, in order to scan his mummy. The veiled queen of radiology, Prof. Mervat, was included in the MEGASTARS section of The Ambassadors Magazine for her major scientific achievements and also for possessing the same courage and braveness of Lord Carnarvon's daughter, Evelyn. She ignored all the stories about the curse that can happen to those who visit the pharaoh's tomb, that was blamed for the death of Lord Carnarvon, though his death certificate (signed by a British doctor) noted he died of pneumonia which happened by septicaemia after an infected wound in the pre-antibiotic era. It is thought that the Lord had several health ailments. In addition to suffering from pleurisy, he was also the victim of a major car accident in Germany and had several operations done.
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Despite all the talk about a "King Tut curse", of the 10 persons present at the mummy's unwrapping, none had succumbed to the curse. Howard Carter himself was working in the Valley of the Kings for 30 years and spent a decade in King Tut's tomb from November 1922 till February 1932 when he finished the clearance of the royal treasures. Howard Carter himself, died at the age of 64; Others include Lady Evelyn Herbert (later Beauchamp) who died in 1980; Harry Burton, the expedition photographer died in 1940 at the age of 60; Prof. Percy A. Newberry died in 1949 at the age of 80; Sir Alan H. Gardiner, who studied the tomb's inscriptions, died in 1963 at the age of 84; while Prof. Douglas Derry, who performed the autopsy of the King's mummy and taught me anatomy and paleo-osteology in Cairo University (1948), died at the age of 87 in 1969.
Of these survivors, Lady Evelyn Herbert, daughter of Lord Carnarvon, was the first
female to visit King Tut's tomb, with her father at the ceremony commemorating
its discovery, 85-years ago. The second woman to enter the tomb was the
Queen of Norway with her son Prince Andrew.
Many years later, Prof. Mervat
descended along with Prof. Hawass and a medical team the 16 stairs at the Valley of the
King's Tomb (VK62), she walked through a narrow corridor, then the anti-chamber,
before reaching the burial chamber, where she came face-to-face with the mummy
of the golden king, who was buried there more than 3000 years ago. At that
moment, the Queen of Radiology, became Egypt's
first woman paleoradiologist.
Who Is Who?
After
graduating with her medical degree from Ain Shams University (M.B.B.CH) in 1962,
she earned three diplomas in Radiology, (1969), in Surgery (1970) and medicine (1971).
Soon
afterwards, she moved to the United Kingdom where she was Locum Senior Registrar
and Locum Consultant at Leeds Area Health Authority (Teaching Hospitals),
between 1973 and 1977. Upon her return to Egypt,
she earned her MD in Diagnostic Radiology from
Cairo University (1977).
Dr. Mervat was
the first female doctor to be appointed lecturer in the radiology department Kasr
El-Aini Medical School. This was reported in Al-Ahram daily newspaper (see
clipping to the right). Kasr El-Aini
Medical school is the oldest and largest medical school in Egypt (founded 1820),
and whose hospitals carried out the task of
training and graduating generations of
specialists and teaching staff for Egypt and the Middle East. She was as also the first
female doctor to be appointed
head of the Radiology department Cairo University. Between
1988 and 2003, she held the position of Professor of Radiological
Diagnosis.
From her early interest in pediatric radiology in the 1970s when she chose to study the role of radiology in the diagnosis of intra abdominal masses in children. She pioneered the use of invasive techniques for proper diagnosis of these conditions. Visualizing the arterial and venous supply of the diseased organs or abnormal masses which was crucial in the process of diagnosis to help for proper planning for surgery or other treatment modalities. In 1982, she founded and developed the Pediatric units in the New Children Hospital of Kasr El Aini (200 beds), and Al Mounira hospital which was an old hospital rebuilt in 1995 (300 beds), both hospitals are close to each other to form the largest specialized pediatric compound and both are equipped with the latest technologies for management of children's medical problems.
During a stint in the gulf region (1979-1982) with her husband Prof. Mokhtar Gomaa, the distinguished cardiologist, she served as the head of the radiology department at Al-Jazira hospital in Abu-Dhabi, U.A.E. and consultant radiologist (1978-1979). While in the UAE, she enrolled in a special course on CT scanning, which she developed a quick interest in. This technology was new at the time and unavailable in many regional hospitals.
Accomplishments
First female doctor to be appointed lecturer in the radiology department at Cairo University
First female doctor to be appointed head of the Radiology department at Cairo University
She founded and developed: the CT unit in Al Jazira hospital, Abu Dhabi
She was the Head of the Pediatric X-ray Units at Cairo University Hospitals from 1983-2002
Since 1997, she has been the Head of C.T. amd M.R.I Units at the Oncology Center, Nasser Institute
Founded and developed the MRI and CT units in the Oncology center of Nasser Institute Hospital, Cairo, Egypt (800 beds)
Started the operation of the first multi-slice CT scanner in Egypt at Kasr El-Aini Hospital (2003).
Plethora of publications in pediatric radiology.
Teaching pediatric radiology to both undergraduate and postgraduate candidates
Supervised over 50 Masters and M.D. theses.
Prof. Mervat was
the Project Manager of
"The Digital X ray Library" for the Radiology dept. Kasr El- Aini Hospital,
Cairo University (more than 12,000 films and more than 5,000 cases) A regular X
ray film Library was founded simultaneously (2004-2006).
This 18-month project was carried out by a team from the X-Ray department and
was funded and under
supervision of the High Education Enhancement Project Fund (HEEPF), and Cairo
University. The old
X-Ray library in addition to a large number of other films collected from
several locations were used in the new digital library. The films were
rearranged, coded, X-Ray reports were written, films were digitized and
then
archived. The team developed a unique digital archiving and image collection
database system. Since the available commercial solutions for creating image
collection were not suitable radiological applications, a data base was chosen as
a development tool that allows rapid design and development of multimedia/user-friendly
programs supporting web-based application. The
X-Ray library became a very important means of studying radiology and
radiological anatomy.
The Veiled Queen of Radiology and the Golden King
Prof. Mervat Shafik, MD was head of the Egyptian medical team for the study of King Tut-Ankh-Amun mummy by multi-slice CT Scan. The examination was supervised by Prof. Zahi Hawass, PhD, head of the Egyptian Council of Antiquities and funded by the National Geographic Society which provided a mobile CT scanner, that was transferred to Luxor, where the mummy was present. The CT examination ruled out the previous views of a murder theory of King Tut by a blow at the back of his head as well as a chest trauma being the cause of death. The examination showed a premortum fracture of the lower part of the left femur with an open wound that could have been the cause of death. The images and the result of the CT scan examination were published in the National Geographic Magazine. A paper was presented about these findings in the 2006 meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (Chicago). A movie was made by the National Geographic Society based on the CT pictures and 3D reconstruction images of the King Tut. The movie was shown on Egyptian TV as well as the National Geographic Society TV channel. The result of the groundbreaking computerized tomography of King Tut and the images are published in this issue's Selected Studies Section.
Prof. Mervat with the medical team that scanned King Tut.
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Dr. Mervat receiving her MD degree in diagnostic radiology.
Prof. Mervat as Head of the Diagnostic Radiology Department, Cairo University.
Prof. Mervat with her husband Prof. Mokhtar Gomaa at a farewell event
with the Minister of Health for the United Arab Emirates
Prof. Mervat with the Japanese group at the Japanese Children's Hospital (Cairo,
Egypt).
Computerized tomography of King Tut (See: Selected Studies section)
Prof. Talaat I. Farag, MD, FRCP, FACP, FACMG is a former adjunct professor at Dalhousie University in Canada. He is the founder of The Ambassadors Research Foundation in 1998. Email: tfarag@dal.ca.
